How to Promote Music on Apple Music Effectively in 2024

And the best part is, Apple Music is designed for just that - music promotion. It’s host to a number of promotional tools available to artists who choose to release music on Apple Music. But getting your music on there is just the beginning - it’s what you do next that’ll really get you noticed.

9 Apple Music promotion tips for artist in 2024

When it comes to promoting your music on Apple Music, it’s first worth noting the difference between Apple Music and its sister platform, iTunes.

While iTunes lets listeners purchase and download individual songs or albums, Apple Music is a subscription-based service where users pay a fixed amount a month for unlimited listening.

While you can still sell your music on iTunes, Apple Music is a great place to focus your music promotion. And here’s how.

1. Claim your Apple Music for Artists profile

Claiming or verifying your Apple Music for Artists profile is probably the most important and easiest way to get your Apple Music promo strategy off the ground!

If you’re not familiar with Apple Music for Artists already, just follow the below steps to claim your Apple Music profile:

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2. Create a track preview tweet

One of the best promotional tools available to users on Apple Music is the option to create a track preview tweet.

This allows you to post a Twitter audio card that showcases a 30-second preview of your song, complete with cover art and a link so fans and Twitter users can head directly from Twitter over to Apple Music to listen to the song in its entirety.

A track preview tweet is a great way to heighten social buzz and music sharing among your already-made fans and new listeners.

Note: This feature is available only for songs, not albums or playlists.

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3. Design your own badges & icons

Available in 42 languages, Apple Music badges and icons can be used to help global listeners recognise you and your music. They’re a great means of promoting your music on the platform within your marketing communications, including social, apps, websites, and printed promotions.

Badges - branded images that are representative of your music or product, with text that displays the name of it.

Icons - the product's imagery, with its music note and colour scheme.

Both badges and icons can be used to promote your music by embedding either or as identifiable links to your song or album on Apple Music, on places like your website or social media.

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Note: Before you create or post any official Apple badges and branding, be sure to review the Apple Music Identity Guidelines to make sure you’re doing everything by the book!

4. Make an embedded player

An embedded player enables Apple Music users to offer listeners a preview of your music anywhere on the web!

This means that even listeners who aren’t signed up to Apple Music can play a 30-second clip of your song, see a preview of your album or even a playlist with the full list of songs displayed. For listeners who are logged in to Apple Music, they’ll be able to hear full tracks without having to leave your website to go to stream them on Apple Music.

So similar to the track preview tweet, creating an embedded player allows listeners to sample a preview but with the added flexibility of it being embedded on any site that accepts the web code.

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5. Generate links to your music

The best way to send listeners directly to a song, album, or playlist are with links that automatically open on Apple Music on any mobile phone or digital device.

Plus, you can create shortened links to send out via email marketing as well as on social media!

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6. Build a following on the platform

Start by requesting support from family, friends and already pledged fans. You can then sync up all of your social media profiles to your Apple Music profile and use those to direct different followings and traffic straight to your Apple Music profile.

Go a step further by supporting fellow musicians on the app and on your level. Give them a follow and pay them a compliment if you’re digging their track. You might even want to give them a shout out or mention on your social media platforms.

Not only will this help you build a community of like-minded musicians on the app, it’s likely that they’ll return the favour anytime you help promote them, which is great for expanding your own network of fans.

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7. Upload music consistently

It makes sense that the more music, songs and albums you can get on Apple Music, the higher your chances are of doing better on there. Posting new music regularly means you won’t give your fans a chance to forget about you. Stay in their musical peripheral and their streaming spaces by enforcing a regular and well-marketed uploading schedule.

Just be careful never to compromise the overall quality of your music. While it can be somewhat tempting to put out substandard quality content in a bid to stay relevant, it won’t work in the long run and your fans will see straight through it. Be warned.

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8. Get playlisted

Similarly to Spotify, getting playlisted on Apple Music is a great music promotion technique for newer artists to be aware of.

But unlike Spotify, the public playlists on Apple Music are curated by Apple Music’s in-house editorial team. This means you can’t exactly pitch your music for playlisting unless you’re on buddy terms with an Apple Music curator or employee.

But although Apple Music doesn't accept playlist submissions directly, there are things you can do to bump off your chances of getting on a public playlist.

Verifying your profile, growing your following both on and off Apple Music and working with a well-networked distributor are all steps in the right direction!

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9. Promote your shows with Apple Music Set Lists

Another really useful music marketing tool that you can utilise within your Apple Music promotional strategy is their new feature - Set Lists.

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The recently launched Set Lists feature transforms your live set lists into easily streamable playlists for your fans - perfect for giving listeners a way to relive the experience. Here's how to set up an Apple Music Set List:

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You're also able to share your Set Lists on Apple Music and to social media to promote your upcoming tour dates and keep the concert buzz alive. Learn more about how to set up Apple Music Set Lists and start making use of this exciting new tool right away!

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There you have it. 9 ideas to reinvigorate your marketing strategy on Apple Music. Make sure to keep up to date with the latest new features and artist tool drops by following Ditto on all of our socials and by checking out our Unsigned Advice blog.

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